We Must Never Forget

Surrounded by the graying, slightly stooped heroes whose bravery saved the world from the terror of fascism half a century ago, President Clinton commemorated the end of World War II by speaking at the National Cemetery of the Pacific on September 9.

"We must never forget," he said "both the tragedy and the triumph of that time because it holds lessons for all time." For 50 years, leader after leader has proclaimed, "We must never forget." Yet the tragedy in Bosnia mocks that familiar exhortation and shows that we have forgotten the lessons of World War II.

The greatest single lesson of the brutal 20th century should be the monumental error of appeasement at Munich. Neville Chamberlain, echoing comments that we hear today from very reputable corners, said the Nazi drive to overtake Czechoslovakia was a quarrel "in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing." Less than two years after the agreement, Europe was engulfed in war.

Today's Western leaders were all too willing to allow Bosnia to be carved up into ethnic enclaves--a sure recipe for future combat. Only the fierce intransigence of the Bosnian Muslims stopped the disastrous Vance-Owen "peace plan" from giving the Serbs nearly everything they wanted. When will the nations of the free world learn that one cannot buy peace from the merchants of tyranny?

As the ink was drying on the Munich agreement and the British subjects were celebrating "peace in our time" in the streets of London, Winston Churchill rose in the House of Commons to indict the leaders of his day with words that are applicable to today's generation. "Terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." We must never forget.

On August 1, 1944, the Polish Underground resistance started fighting the Nazis on the streets of Warsaw. The city erupted in a valiant rebellion. But the rocks and slings of these modern-day Davids were no match for the armor of the German Goliath. The Soviet Red Army, parked only 10 miles from Warsaw, coldly watched thousands of Poles being slaughtered. The Western democracies were outraged and this became one of the prime pieces of evidence on the side of those who believed that the Soviets could not be trusted in the post-war world.

On July 12, 1995, Dutch members of the U.N. Protection Force in Srebrenicia coldly watched the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. The U.N. "Protection Force," much like the Holy Roman Empire in the old joke, is neither much of a force nor does it protect anybody except for itself. The Dutch "soldiers" in Srebrenicia watched men, women and children be rounded up, listened to the shots ring out and even watched as Serbs put bullets through the heads of civilians. Cpl. Hans Berkers blithely proclaimed, "I don't feel guilty. It wasn't my war."

The Dutch should know by now that we cannot pull our finger out of the fragile dike holding back the floods of fascism. They were neutral toward Hitler in the 1930s and said World War II wasn't their war either. That is, until they were overrun by the blitzkrieg and had to be saved by American and British forces. We must never forget.

Without a doubt, the most monumental affront to the memory of those who lived and died to defeat despotism 50 years ago is the Bosnian arms embargo. In 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealed to the United States to help supply the fight for freedom. "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." We did, and Lend-Lease proved crucial in sustaining the British during the Battle of Britain.

In 1995, British Prime Minister John Major argued vehemently against arming the embattled Bosnians. Major, who, save for the dearth of a bowler hat and umbrella is a worthy successor to the exalted post of Neville Chamberlain, said that arming the Bosnians would prolong the conflict. He is absolutely right. Had the U.S. not "prolonged the conflict" by arming the British in World War II, Herr Major would now be celebrating Oktoberfest in Trafalgar Square as we entered year 63 of the thousand-year Reich. We must never forget.

For Americans, the lesson of Bosnia should be the same lesson we thought we had learned from World War II: The U.S. must support the forces of democracy around the world. We cannot recede into the background and pretend that we are just one of the member states of the United Nations. Be it at Dunkirk or Gorazde, the embattled disciples of democracy look to the U.S. for more than just funds and materiel.

In 1940, as Americans wondered what "national interest" they had in a war that many thought we should let the Europeans take care of themselves, William Allen White wrote, "Whoever is fighting for liberty is defending America." These words are now inscribed on the wall of a corridor in the U.S. Capitol. Yet, for too much of two administrations, the U.S. has stood by as its defenders were slaughtered in the streets of Sarajevo. We puttered while our allies dithered, dawdled and delayed their way to a "consensus" on whether to support the firefighters or the fire. We must never forget.

Today, The U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt glides stealthily in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of what once was Yugoslavia. Ironically, the motto of the Western powers for most of the Bosnian conflict has been to "Speak hypocritically and thwack yourself with a small twig." Western leaders regularly repeat their mantra of how "Bosnia was a great failure of Western leadership," as if they are speaking of some other Western leaders and that with the admission of guilt all their sins are absolved.

World War II was the most destructive war in history. We have collectively resolved time and time again that the tens and tens of millions who perished shall not have died in vain. Yet, for all the pious proclamations to the contrary, Bosnia shows that we have not remembered the lessons we swore that we would never forget. In the town of Mostar, pock-marked by mortar shells, someone has scribbled on a wall a reminder and a reproach: "Don't Forget." Maybe this time we won't.

Let us all pledge that long after the crisis in Bosnia comes to some sort of sad conclusion, we will never forget its lessons. We must never forget the men, women and children who died because the rest of the world had forgotten the lessons of the past. We must never forget the silent spectre of "ethnic cleansing." We must never forget the renewed failure of appeasement. We must never forget the cowardly indifference to butchery. We must never forget the fact that the Nations of the world united to prevent a people from defending itself against attacks. We must never forget that the United States has a special role to play, a role it cannot shirk. We must never forget.